


Paper People

by lubilu17



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Because I like to hurt myself like this, It’s basically Steve dealing with trauma, Nightmares, Post Season 2, Steve centric, Steves bad parents, with an almost happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 19:34:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12895191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lubilu17/pseuds/lubilu17
Summary: They were paper people in a paper town and he was their king with a paper crown.But paper can burn. And it burns easily, almost too easily.





	Paper People

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my first work for this fandom so I really hope you all enjoy it.

They had all been paper people, the kids at school, paper people in a paper town. And Steve had been the paper king with his paper crown and his paper subjects. Paper could be cut and folded into whatever it needed to be, it could be changed into something better. That’s all they were really paper people with paper parents in a paper town in a paper world. A world full of even more paper people that they’d never met and couldn’t care less about.

And Steve had been the king of it all.

But no one had ever told the king that paper can burn. It burns easily. Bringing down Steve and his position as quickly as the flames ate through his paper crown. Paper burns and it seems only Steve got burnt by the fire.

He goes from being in the centre of attention in the school, every eye on him as he sauntered down the corridors, to nobody looking at him as he slinked along the edges of wall. The smouldering remnants of his paper crown still lay on his hair, almost as if his pride wouldn’t let him move the ashes of his head.

He goes from being friends with Tommy and Carol, smoking cigarettes behind dumpsters, to being friends with Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers, helping a bunch of middle schoolers kill some monsters. There’s still cuts and bruises in his face and burn marks on his heart, as if the burning of his life caused an actual injury.

He goes from being king of the world to an absolute nobody. The little paper person he once was is still there but burnt around the edges and scrunched into a tiny little ball.

Because that’s how he feels now, like he’s being scrunched up into a little ball, like everything the world threw at him the last couple of months has finally caught up on him and just balled his head up. He can’t concentrate in class anymore (not that he was the best student in the first place). He spaces out at home, though no one is there to bring him out of his head when it gets too bad. He zones out at lunch and either Nancy or Jonathan has to bring him back to himself at their table in the corner.

_The lights are flashing different colours._

_They’re almost blinding._

_He wants to ask again what’s going on._

_But he can’t talk._

_He can’t breath._

The table in the corner of the lunch hall in his whole world now, his little kingdom where he doesn’t have to be perfect anymore. He can just sit in silence and no one will say anything, just let him rip apart slowly. They always have one seat free, next to Nancy and none of them mention who it’s for. They don’t need to. They all know that the seat next to Nancy belongs to Barb. No matter whether she’s here or not to actually sit in it. It’s hers. It’s on this table months after the whole almost end of the world event where Jonathan tells him and Nancy about Joyce and Hopper finally getting together. It’s on this table where Jonathan and Nancy tell him that they’re together, and he’s happy for them, he really is, they deserve each other. It’s on this table where Nancy tells him and Jonathan about Mike’s Valentine’s Day plans for Jane and they all laugh at the fact hat Hopper is likely to have an aneurysm at the thought of Jane and Mike. It’s his little sanctuary in a world full of burning paper.

As much as school has changed home life has stayed the same for Steve. He’s alone. The house is quiet and he hates the way he can hear his breathing in the silent rooms. One time a light started to flicker and Steve couldn’t help but think that the demogorgans were coming back to kill him, that he was alone in his house and no one would find him. Anytime a car sped down the road his breath hitched in his throat, imagining Billy coming back to finish the job. It was every time he closed his eyes.

_There’s something in his throat._

_He’s choking on whatever it is._

_It tastes metallic on his tongue when he coughs it up._

_Blood._

He sits down with Hopper one day after one of the kids mentioned to Joyce that he seemed different to usual. That he seemed empty. He sits down with Hopper and for the first time in almost half a year her talks to someone about what he’s been feeling. He talked about the nightmares (the ones where there’s Christmas lights flashing as Dustin gets mauled by a creature he can’t see, the ones where her can hear Nancy screaming but he can’t reach her, the ones where he’s trapped in the Byers house alone and can hear the growling of the demo-dogs getting closer to him in every direction), he talked about the crushing fear in his heart every time he sees Billy in the corridors of school. He talked about the rising anxiety in his chest every time he sees Max and she’s got some kind of bruise, even if she insists it’s from falling off her skateboard, and friends don’t lie. He talked about how every time a room got too crowded he can still feel the demo-dogs running through the tunnels past him. He talked about how he feels that everyone around d him has started to rebuild their lives back up and he can’t seem to do that. He talked about how guilty he feels about that, because he feels that nothing bad really happened to him when it’s put into perspective.

Hopper reminded him that everyone deals with trauma differently. That truly bad things did happen to him. That he was almost beaten to death then less than an hour later protected a group of children from monsters that even a childhood nightmare couldn’t even think of. Hopper reminded him that it was all over and let him cry into his uniform for an hour.

_There’s a plate being smashed over his head._

_He can’t see anything._

_He can hear screaming._

_The screaming of a child._

_Then the punches start to come._

The dinner invitations start to come a couple of weeks after his talk with Hopper. Jonathan delivers them at school and Steve suspects they come from Joyce. It’s the first time he’s been back since that night, he couldn’t bring himself to go round when he was invited at Christmas. But after his talk with Hopper he thinks it might be a good idea to revisit to house. Hopper and Jane are there, he never knew her as Eleven so it feels weird to call her El in his opinion. Joyce made meatloaf and for the first time in years Steve managed to enjoy a family meal and truly feel included and for the first time in months he manages to eat a full meal without feeling like he’s about to throw up.

Hopper and Jane drop him off back at his house on their way back to the cabin. His house feels cold, uninviting compared to the manic comfort Steve found at the Byers. The dark hallways feel never ending and even emptier than they usually do. Neither of Steve’s parents have called to see how he’s doing.

A couple of days later there’s another invitation. Then a couple of days after that there’s another one. Before he knows it he’s going round to the Byers multiple times a week, being dropped off at his house be Hopper and Jane. Sometimes they are joined by Nancy, sometimes they’re joined by all of Will’s friends. He prefers it when Will's friends come over. It because he doesn’t like Nancy or anything, it’s more that the kids can distract him from everything.

Every time he goes round he pretends he doesn’t notice the worried looks Joyce and Hopper give him. The way that Hopper stays on his street for a couple of minutes after Steve has entered his house. He pretends to not notice the looks Hopper and Joyce give each other every time he looks a million miles away. He always shrugs of their questions about his parents, when they’ll be back, where they are. It doesn’t make a difference whether or not they are here, they don’t do anything with him.

Neither of his parents have checked in with him for weeks.

It takes about a month and a half before Joyce gives in a almost forces him to stay overnight. He insists that he should be getting home, but she reminds him that Hopper and Jane were also staying the night so he might as well. That’s been happening more often lately as well, according to Jonathan and what Steve’s managed to get her from snippets of conversation. He’s happy for them both. After what happened with Bob and Hopper's daughter. They both deserve each other.

The first night he stays over he sleeps on the couch and is awoken by the smell of pancakes. When he opens his eyes he can see Jonathan stood cooking at the stove and Hopper nursing a cup of coffee at the dining table. He can slightly hear Will and Jane talking in another room and Joyce doing work around the house.

For the first time in months he wakes up surrounded by people he cares for. The little voice in the back of his head reminds him that they care for him as well.

_Dustin’s screaming about something in his mouth._

_Oh shit, what happens if he dies._

_The tunnel begins to flash the colour of Christmas lights._

_There’s howling getting closer to them and he still can’t get to Dustin._

The first time Steve has one of his nightmares at the Byers house he expects to be thrown out for disturbing them all. But instead Will and Jane go into the kitchen and make everyone big mugs of hot chocolate. Jonathan sits on the floor beside the couch and squeezes Steve’s hand tightly, as if to remind him that he’s real, that they’re all real. Joyce and Hopper sit on either side of him, their arms around his shoulders and he shakes and sobs into Hoppers shoulders. After their hot chocolate delivery Will and Jane both go back to Will’s bedroom, as if they know that this is a private moment for the other teen.

None of them ask if he’s alright, they all know he’s not. None of them are. They stay in the same position until they actually have to get ready to leave for school and work.

For the first time since he’s started going round for dinner Steve goes round straight after school and starts to bring his books to the house. He stops going back to his own house and goes straight to the Byers with Jonathan. They build a makeshift bed and move it into Jonathan’s room for him to sleep in at night. When he has nightmares they’re all there with their respective jobs and it’s the same when any of the others have a nightmare. There’s always a plate out for him at breakfast, always a spot for him on the couch, always a smile directed at him. He joins in the movie week rota.

There’s tears in his eyes when Hopper ruffles his hair and calls him son for the first time. He can’t remember the last time his dad even actually spoke to him, let alone called him son. There’s a smile on his face when Joyce tells him stories of stupid things that Jonathan and Will did as young children. There's a laugh in his throat when Jonathan tries to take his portrait and Steve makes it his mission to ruin them all.

They become a family, a family of broken people, but nevertheless a family all the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make my heart sing!!!!


End file.
